Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Seriously Seeking Darkness! Turn Off That Light! by John Crossingham

A little sleeping hedgehog is awakened by someone suddenly flipping the switch of his bedroom light.

The light switch is clicked and off go the lights.

It's back to dreamland, until...

Click!

"Huh?! Wuzzak?!

WHO KEEPS DOING THAT!"

Little Hedgehog rubs his offended eyes. He must get a good look at the prankster who is turning his light on and off.

Click! He's feeling his way across the room when he encounters a body/ He'll show that interloper whose room this is! Wacks and zaps ensue.

With another Click! Hedgehog sees that he's just beaten the stuffing (literally) out of his toy rabbit!

"Bunny?"

Muffled in mounds of pink plush bunny stuffing, Hedgehog tries to take control of the confusion by plugging in his own version of a trouble light! There's got to be some reason for this midnight switch flipping! He's going to nip that flipper!

"What? I said what? I asked for a drink of water?"

There is a logical reason for this midnight melee'. And, as is the wont in these crazed days of interactive picture books, it's customary to blame it all on the reader.

Yes, YOU, dear reader! You're the one who keeps making the lights come on--BY TURNING THOSE PAGES! Crossingham's droll hedgehog denies all culpability. He couldn't have asked for a drink of water and then fallen sound asleep, could he?

"I DID? Soooo... glug, glug, glug!"

In John Crossingham's latest, big-eyed little Hedgehog, sporting quills that end in a Mohawk do, stars in a very unique little bedtime story. Set against illustrator Steve Wilson's dark, shiny pages with wavering shadows and cartoon-style speech balloons, our anti-hero hedgehog sorts out the problem grumpily, and with a page turn and a final CLICK, he's finally off to sleep. Or is he? The pages are all turned. What else could happen?

"I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM...."

There's always the closing endpaper in John Crossingham's Turn Off That Light! (OwlKids Books, 2015), a quirky interactive story with a role for young readers. Hey! Dear Reader... Don't close that cover... YET!

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About Me

Retired after 32+ years as an elementary librarian, I really miss the joy of bringing together the right book with the right reader at the right time. Loving both kids and books equally as I do, perhaps helping children and the adults who care about them find good books through this blog is the next best thing to being there.
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